Texas Motor Speedway officials said that they will “review current procedures and policies in light of a man fatally shooting himself while in the infield” during Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series NRA 500, according to Deanna Boyd of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM. Police said that Kirk Franklin “shot himself in the back of his pickup after arguing with other race fans in the infield campground near the end” of the race. TMS VP/Media Relations Mike Zizzo in an e-mail wrote that Franklin had “a reserved recreational vehicle spot on the grounds.” Zizzo said that TMS “screens fans similar to what is done at other major sporting events.” He added that authorities “conduct random checks of some of the approximately 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles that travel in and out of the tunnels to the infield area per day during a NASCAR weekend.” He said that “among those vehicles are the 1,000 RVs or campers that have parking spots in the infield.” Zizzo: "While it would be an extremely daunting task to search every vehicle that travels into the infield -- which could number as high as 7,000 vehicles per day on a NASCAR weekend -- we still will perform our due diligence of these procedures and policies as we traditionally do after every race.” Zizzo said that while he “could not divulge the amount of security or specific procedure for security reason, TMS works in unison with Fort Worth police, several surrounding and outside agencies and multiple third-party security vendors to comprise the track's security force” (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 4/15).
